The long-awaited 12th session for the election of a president of the republic met the same fate as the previous 11 sterile attempts held since the mandate of former president Michel Aoun ended on October 31, 2022.
However, Wednesday’s session witnessed a tight contest between the leading candidates, the Hezbollah-Amal backed Sleiman Frangieh and Jihad Azour who is backed by a coalition of opposition parties and the Free Patriotic Movement.
The results of the ballot after the first and only round came as follows, including one controversial vote which was “granted” to Ziad Baroud: Jihad Azour: 59 votes, Sleiman Frangieh: 51 Votes, Ziad Baroud: 7 Votes, Joseph Aoun: 1, Blank Votes: 1 New Lebanon: 8 Votes, Invalid bulletins: 1.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri refused to recast and even recount the ballots despite the controversial result.
“One vote would not make a difference,” he said.
According to MTV, dozens of MPs, belonging to the pro-Hezbollah camp, began leaving parliament before the counting of the ballots had even started in an obvious move aimed at sabotaging the quorum.
Lebanese Forces MP Sethrida Geagea denounced “the violation of the constitution” due to Speaker Nabih Berri’s refusal to recast the ballots despite the missing vote.
Change MP Melhem Khalaf has called on Speaker Berri at the beginning of the session that all Parliamentarians remain in session to maintain the quorum until a president of the republic is elected in successive ballot casts in line with the constitution. Obviously, his plea was not heeded…
